Communicating with Clients and Customers
In this article, Raphael Lapin provides insightful answers to 20 questions about communicating with customers and clients. Questions range from "Why is listening to clients so important?" to "How do you get clients to open up about their lives, attitudes, and dreams for the future?"
Controlling Scope Creep
In this article, Shelly Doll illustrates a "scope creep horror story" and then summarily outlines 7 key steps for avoiding scope creep in a web development project. These steps include 1) understand project vision; 2) understand your priorities and the priorities of clients/customers; 3) define deliverables and have them approved; 4) parse deliverables into actual "work requirements;" 5) ID major/minor "milestones;" 6) determine resources and critical path - make assignments (GAANT or PERT charting); and 7) expect some scope creep to occur and be prepared for it.
Changes in the Environment
The authors of this research article present results of a study of multiple project manager's responses to various unpredictable situations in project management. The article is long, but illuminating and utilitarian (not the "gutter" type). Here's the abstract:
"Projects are inherently uncertain and face unexpected events, from small changes in scope to unforeseen client’s bankruptcy. This paper studies how project managers respond to such events and how successful and unsuccessful responses differ from the perspective of the practitioner. We analysed 44 unexpected events faced by 22 experienced project managers in defence and defence-related organisations. The project managers compared two unexpected events that they faced, one that they considered the response successful and the other unsuccessful. We identified three pillars supporting successful responses to unexpected events: (1) responsive and functioning structure at the organisational level, (2) good interpersonal relationship at the group level and (3) competent people at the individual level. The events and respective responses analysed suggest that improvement in project management can be achieved by better managing these three pillars, allowing project and programme managers to 'create their own luck.'"
Staying on Schedule
In this article, John Reh is concise and to the point about how to stay on schedule in project management (I suspect he has his own schedule to keep). He highlights the importance of identifying key tasks, creating a detailed schedule, and identifying a critical path.
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